JLPT July 2022 Experiences

Japanese
#21

Passed N3 really easily in last december, tried N2 this time.

Vocabulary part was super easy for me except for the last question with those freaking onomatopoeias :sweat_smile:

Grammar seemed not that difficult except for personally I just can’t get my mind around the questions where you have to guess what’s in the place of the star! That’s impossible for me even in the Kanzen books haha

Reading section was really difficult and tricky, I was overconfident because usually I don’t struggle when reading newspapers or regular articles on Wikipedia, but those texts were pretty boring for me and I always came up with 2 or 3 good answers


Listening part slayed me lmao, it is supposed to be close to normal speed but it felt like way too fast. I was clearly not prepared for this section and didn’t practice at all.
Also I was in the right edge of the room very very close to the right speaker and it really disturbed me :persevere:

When leaving I ended up a bit frustrated because I realised how this exam is more about being good at taking it rather than being good at japanese. I’m fully self taught for 4 years now and never been to Japan but I’m looking forward to finally go live and work there so that I can easily and naturally be accustomed to the thick difficulty of this N2 and later N1 of course.

4 Likes
#22

You’re gonna do the same as you do with any other word you don’t know or can’t recall: You’re gonna explain the concept or look it up.

I have had experiences too where words I thought wouldn’t be useful turned up in conversations later. But in general, if it’s not for a test, it’s fine to think of a word as “useless” and to not learn it properly or at all at that moment. We all have finite time and have to focus. And you’ll be fine - if it turns out you hear, read or want to use the word a few times after all, you’ll eventually learn it anyway.

2 Likes
#23

Hey! I took N4 the same day here in Valencia (Spain), I would say the grammar/vocabulary part was super easy (I am level 60 in WaniKani though :sweat_smile:), but the listening part
 was quite challenging for me
 I hope I passed :crossed_fingers:

The grammar part I hated the most is the one with the :star:, can’t get used to that :rofl: although the rest of the grammar was quite straightforward and I felt like bunpro really help me there with the N4 Grammar Decks :rocket:

The only thing remarkable on my classroom is that in the same classroom as my classmate and I, the son of our Japanese teacher (who is a half Japanese, half Spanish 13 year old) was also taking the exam. When I asked him how was the test he told me: ă‹ă‚“ăŸă‚“ă§ă™ïŒ:rofl::rofl::rofl:

10 Likes
#24

Hola @kutyel, welcome in the forum and well done for the exam!
I’m taking the N4 this december, do you have any advice? do you regret something on how you prepared this exam?

4 Likes
#25

Thanks @qazrt! Yeah definitely, I would come up with some words I did not know like ねっしん and ć–¶æ„­, so I guess I should have done as well the N4 Vocabulary Deck from Bunpro, and definitely should have listened to more listening practice videos on YouTube, like this one for example. All the best in your December exam! :raised_hands:

4 Likes
#26

I will have a look, thank you!

2 Likes
#27

My dear ä»Č間達 I passed my JLPT N4!!! :tada::trophy::fire::raised_hands:t3:

13 Likes
#28

You can’t repeat anything in the listening section?!

But what if my brain hasn’t turned on yet


#29

Yeahhhh. It is the last part of the test, so hopefully you should be warmed up by then. Also, there is a little warming up before each section of the listening test, so it helps as well. But yep, once it starts, it doesn’t stop. Worst case you can just mark a random answer and try to catch up

2 Likes
#30

On the listening section, do you get a chance to read the answers before the audio plays. Worried that if my reading speed is too slow, I won’t have finished reading the options ahead of the audio playing.

#31

For some you can, for others you can’t. There’s also a few sections where there’s nothing written and the answer is part of the audio as well.

1 Like
#32

It might be my imagination but I always find they put the two hardest listening questions as the first two questions for each section. So prior to the listening exam its a good idea to warmup your brain with some tricky Japanese.

1 Like
#33

Thanks for the tips, I’m dreading the listening section.

2 Likes